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The Unofficial Blogger of the Chicago Cubs in Canada

Cubs Lose First One of Season

Kyle Schwarber’s season is done after tearing his ACL and LCL. The unfortunate incident occurred during Thursday night’s 14-6 victory over the Diamondbacks while Schwarber and Dexter Fowler were competing for a ball. Schwarber took the brunt of the hit and wasn’t able to walk off the field under his own terms.

I thought we were really well-positioned to win in large part because of Kyle’s presence on the team,” Epstein said, “and now we’re really well-positioned to win for Kyle. I think that’s how his teammates are responding and will respond going forward.”

We all know there’s a lot of depth on the Cubs team and Menenori Kawasaki is expected to fill those rather large shoes.

“It’s tough,” Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo said of losing Schwarber. “You see Kyle work so hard this spring and come into camp in shape and prepared to catch and play the outfield and do anything, anything he was asked to do. He did it all and he was ready to break out and be a bigger star in the game.”

Although the Cubs lost to the Diamondbacks 3-2, it was a good loss and shows that after starting the first three games of the season with a combined score of 29 runs, the team truly is living up to the powerhouse they’re predicted to become.

If there were any doubts I had about Jason Hammel, they were quickly squashed in his 2016 debut allowing one run over six innings of work. He’s another guy who is going to miss Schwarber.

“We worked together all spring and it was great,” Hammel said. “I feel terrible for him. It’s such a tough break. I was feeling pretty lucky last night when they said sprained ankle. When you go back and look at the replays, his knee was in a pretty bad place. Hopefully he’ll have a quick recovery and we’ll welcome him back. Hopefully he’ll be sticking around and hanging around with us as he goes through the long process of rehab. It’s a tough loss.”

Tonight, Kyle Hendricks will make his season debut. The often overlooked player had a terrific spring allowing him to make the rotation. I’m expecting “The Professor” to have a rebound year. He’s going up against Zack Greinke and although it’s not going to be the easiest of starts, I have faith in him.

“There’s a lot of headlines on our team. I’m pretty far down there,” Hendricks said. “That’s fine with me. I like it that way. I like focusing on myself, and if there’s not much going on, not much hype, that’s fine. I’m just going out there trying to do my thing and win some ballgames.”

All right, here’s my prediction with Kyle. He’s going to win 12 this year and his ERA will be trimmed to the low three’s. I have him in my fantasy pool and picked him last year. You’re going to see him come out of the shadows. Expect big things this season.